JOB DUNNE AS KATY WINS FIRST AEGON CLASSIC QUALIFIER

Written by: Staff on 7th June 2014

JOB DUNNE AS KATY WINS FIRST AEGON CLASSIC QUALIFIER

epa000223262 A ball boyprepares tennis balls during a match on an outside court at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, Tuesday 29 June 2004. As the tournament reaches the quarter finals, defending champion Roger Federer faces former champion Lleyton Hewitt on Centre Court June 30. EPA/CHARLIE BIBBY |

Great Britain’s Katy Dunne earned one of the biggest wins her career so far when she defeated Alize Lim of France in the first round of qualifying at the Aegon Classic, held at the Priory Club in Birmingham on Saturday.

Nineteen-year-old Dunne, the British No.11, is ranked 483, 352 places lower than her opponent, but overcame the gulf in rankings to beat Lim 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4 to set up a meeting with Hungary’s Timea Babos in the final round of qualifying.

“I knew I always had a chance after the first set where I was making few too many errors on the important points,” said Dunne, who is bidding to join fellow Britons Heather Watson, Johanna Konta and Naomi Broady in the main draw of singles at the WTA Premier tournament. “Grass is becoming my favourite surface. It’s nice to have the crowd behind me.”

Babos, seeded two in the qualifying draw, showed her experience in beating British teenager Harriet Dart 6-3, 6-2.

In other qualifying results on Saturday, two-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist Tamira Paszek proved too strong for Great Britain’s Emily Webley-Smith in notching up a 6-3, 6-4 win. Aleksandra Wozniak and Anastasia Rodionova both scored wins and will now meet each other in the final round on Sunday. British No.6 Tara Moore fell to up-and-coming American Shelby Rogers 6-4, 6-4.

Sunday will see final round of qualifying matches played at the Priory Club as well as remaining first round matches held over from Saturday by bad light. Main draw matches at the Aegon Classic begin on Monday.

Tickets to the Aegon Classic are now on sale. For more information and to purchase tickets please visit www.aegonclassic.co.uk

To find a playing partner, a local court or coach, register at www.allplaytennis.com.

Misc. Tidbits :

• The Aegon Classic is upgraded to a WTA Premier 600 event in 2014 with prize money of over $700k

• 2014 is the 33rd staging of this WTA event in Birmingham which has been won previously by Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Maria Sharapova and Li Na.

• The LTA has invested £5 million into a £12 million redevelopment project at Edgbaston Priory Club to encourage wider participation and grow community access to tennis in the Midland’s, as well as securing the venue as a prominent international venue for racquet sport, attracting world class players to Birmingham and bringing vital business for the local economy.

• The 2014 Aegon Championships is one of three ATP & WTA grass court tournaments staged and run by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) in the run up to The Championships, Wimbledon.

• The Lawn Tennis Association’s (LTA) mission is to get more people playing tennis more often, and its role is to develop, promote and govern tennis in Britain.

• To find a playing partner, local court or coach please visit www.allplaytennis.com

• Aegon is Lead Partner of British Tennis and is helping to transform the sport in this country. They’re supporting young talent through the Aegon FutureStars programme, as well as sponsoring the junior and senior GB Davis and Fed Cup teams and amateur and professional events. Aegon sponsor three world-class grass court tournaments; the Aegon Classic, Aegon International and Aegon Championships and will also sponsor the new WTA and ATP events in Nottingham from 2015. For further information visit www.aegontennis.co.uk

• For more information on the LTA and British tennis, visit: www.lta.org.uk

Order of Play [ click here ]

Singles [ click here ]

Qualifying Singles [ click here ]

Topics: AEGON Classic, Alize Lim, Birmingham, Katy Dunne, Priory Club, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Wimbledon, Wta

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10sBalls_com says:

June 7, 2014 at 11:02 pm

JOB DUNNE AS KATY WINS FIRST AEGON CLASSIC QUALIFIER – http://t.co/xYvqNiRtaa #tennis #AegonClassic #sports